"No, you don't. No, you don't. The scientific debate is over, J.C., we're done... No, no, no... That is science. The science is out there." -- CNN's Miles O'Brien responding to former Oklahoma Congressman J.C. Watts

"I can't help feeling that we in the news media are part of the reason that steps to battle climate change aren't on top of the national agenda. We're good at covering things that happen on any one day -- like a tornado or hurricane -- but weak at covering complex trends, like climate change. And we tend to cover disputes by having a dutiful quote from each side, without always explaining where the scientific consensus lies." -- The New York Times' Nicholas Kristof

"My first night here at MSNBC was the President's State of the Union address in 2003, and I was shocked because there were actually people in the newsroom that were booing the President basically from the beginning to the end." -- MSNBC's Joe Scarborough

"When word came in of Karl Rove's resignation, several people in the [news] meeting started cheering. That sort of expression is simply not appropriate for a newsroom." -- Seattle Times executive editor Dave Boardman

"What is a hoax is that only rich industrialized nations are causing [global warming], that it is manmade. I don't think we have the ability, and I think it's outrageous for people to claim with such vanity that we have such power on the one hand, and on the other hand we're no more important than field mice. In fact, some people would say that for the earth to survive, we'd have to get off of it, or die. It's a religion." -- Rush Limbaugh

"The Democrats believe that defeat in Iraq would be George W. Bush's defeat. It would not. It would be America's defeat." -- Mona Charen

"[D]efeat in Iraq would vindicate not only opposition to Iraq but an entire worldview -- what we've called the worldview of baby-boom liberalism. America's defeat in Vietnam was a triumph for baby-boom liberalism -- a triumph that some seem never to have given up trying to relive." -- James Taranto

"The sub-prime mortgage issue will probably be made worse once the Congress sticks its nose into it and decides to bail out people who took out those impossible loans -- meaning you and I will be helping make all those bad mortgage payments... One of the reasons we are in this mess... is because we have become a Monthly Payment Economy." -- Rich Galen

"It's time for ordinary Americans to come out of the shadows and remind Washington every day in words and actions that we are a sovereign nation, not a sanctuary nation. No more promises. No need to wait for Election ‘08. Just do it." -- Michelle Malkin

"More than 60 sanctuary zones, including 30 of America's largest cities, provide a national networked haven for foreign and organized criminals who recruit and operate outside those areas as well. These sanctuaries include Cambridge, Massachusetts; Los Angeles, California; Detroit, Michigan; Chicago, Illinois; Austin and Houston, Texas; Denver, Colorado; and New York City." -- Fred Thompson

"We've got to get the job done there [in Afghanistan], and that requires us to have enough troops so that we are not just air raiding villages and killing civilians, which is causing enormous pressure there." -- Barack Hussein Obama

"Well, I'm going to be honest with you, I don't know a lot about Cuba's health care system. Is it a government-run system?" -- John Edwards

"I think, frankly, the immigration issue has caused me some difficulties with our base, because I think we still, we've failed to convince the American people that we're serious about securing our borders." -- John McCain

"One of the things, the important aspects of this race is role modeling what good families should look like, and my view is that if you can't run your own house, you certainly can't run the White House." -- Michelle Obama with a not-so-veiled shot at Hillary Clinton

"I am Pro-Life. I believe in the sanctity of the life of the unborn. ...I feel that if we are to find a solution to the horror of abortion, it will be through the Democratic Party... Its values and its programs -- on a whole variety of issues -- most clearly reflect my values. Hillary Clinton is the candidate whom I most admire... I repeat: I am a Christian; I am a Democrat. I support Hillary Clinton for President of the United States." -- author Anne Rice

"My money isn't going to make any difference. My value to him, my support of him is probably worth more than any other check that I could write." -- Oprah Winfrey on supporting Barack Obama

"Most of the disciples of global warming are liberal Democrats who never have enough of our money and believe there are never enough regulations concerning the way we lead our lives. That ought to be enough to give everyone pause, along with emerging evidence that the global warming jihadists may be more full of hot air than the climate they claim is about to burn us up." -- Cal Thomas

"Ethanol is to Iowans what marijuana is to Rastafarians: a substance that is considered quasi-holy, but only because it delivers really good times." -- Rich Lowry

" Hillary Clinton led all Democrats by a wide margin despite her high negative rating among voters. The poll points to a solution. She has 100 percent name recognition, and if she can change that, there is a chance she could win." -- Argus Hamilton

"The fall of the Soviet Union deprived us of the biggest example of how socialism works. We need laboratories of failure to demonstrate what socialism is like. All we have now is Cuba, Venezuela, North Korea, the U.S. Post Office, and state motor-vehicle departments." -- John Stossel

"Aides are always there to cut their roast beef, butter their bread, button their overcoats, knot their ties, polish their shoes, and, in the case of John Edwards and Hillary Clinton, touch up eye shadow, lip gloss and moisturizer." -- Wesley Pruden

"Karl Rove, good as he is (and that's mighty good), is no model of strategic perfection. I have just a charitable hunch that he himself, after all those years next to the political helm, knows better than before the limitations of mere power." -- Bill Murchison

"[Karl] Rove is one of the canniest and most successful managers in American political history. Yet he is viewed within his own party's ranks, especially on Capitol Hill, as part of the problem afflicting the Grand Old Party." -- Robert Novak

"What's the job of the candidate in this world? The job of the candidate is to raise the money to hire the consultants to do the focus groups to figure out the 30-second answers to be memorized by the candidate. This is stunningly dangerous." -- Newt Gingrich

"One of the two major political parties of the United States has linked all its electoral hopes on domestic pathologies, economic downturns and foreign failure. It is actually difficult to name any positive development for America that would benefit the Democratic Party's chances in a national election... The issue is that if Democrats want to win, they can do so only if bad things happen to America." -- Dennis Prager

"Tax rates are not tax revenues. ... How many times does it have to happen before people stop equating tax rates with tax revenues? Do the tax-and-spend politicians and their media supporters not know any better -- or are they counting on the rest of us not knowing any better?" -- Thomas Sowell

"If dissent is so rare, why do global-warming conformists feel the strong need to argue that minority views should be dismissed as nutty or venal? Why not posit that there is such a thing as honest disagreement on the science?" -- Debra Saunders

"Each and every candidate [in] each and every campaign is forced to respond to this litmus test of ‘No New Taxes.' How are we gonna get taxes passed when you can't get anything done in the Congress?... Government's gotta get bigger to help governors in various states." -- MSNBC's Mike Barnicle

"I was in dissent quite a lot and I wasn't happy." -- Supreme Court Justice Stephen Breyer on the last Supreme Court term

"[Karl] Rove... didn't orchestrate every development harmful to liberalism throughout the past 6 1/2 years, nor did he stomp on puppies and kick children on the way to work every morning." -- Rich Lowry

"You're giving away prizes all day and making everybody happy... You couldn't do better. And it's not even your money. You're giving away money and getting credit for it. I feel like a congressman. I'm like the junior Ted Stevens." -- Drew Carey on taking the hosting job at "The Price is Right"

"Sunlight may be the best disinfectant, but, when it comes to global warming, the experts prefer to stick the thermometer where the sun don't shine." -- Mark Steyn

"I feel it's high time that I stepped up to the plate and risked being called a few bad names by denying the myth of the essential Mexican. If you listen to such clodhoppers as George Bush and Ted Kennedy, you might actually get the idea that without a constant stream of Spanish-speaking illiterates, our economy would collapse like a punctured balloon. How is it, I wonder, that this nation managed to get along for the first 200 years of its existence?" -- Burt Prelutsky

"When you talk as much as Newt Gingrich, you'll often say something incisive, clever and even wise. Newt, who may become a candidate himself this fall, ridicules the presidential campaigns as too long, too expensive, and the debates as ‘almost unendurable' and verging on ‘insane.' Once he thinks about it, he'll drop the polite qualifiers ‘almost' and ‘verging.' We're already there." -- Wesley Pruden

"The results of President's Bush's annual physical were released [last week]. It revealed that last year President Bush got a rash from a tick bite. After hearing this, Bill Clinton said, ‘A rash from a tick bite? I'll have to remember that one'." -- Conan O'Brien

"Rudy Giuliani and Mitt Romney say they will not participate in the Republican debate next month in Florida. John McCain said he will be there -- if he can get a ride." -- Jay Leno

web posted August 13, 2007

"Some may object to even asking the question, ‘Did climate change contribute to the Minneapolis bridge collapse?' My guess is those are the same people who deny that global warming is caused by humans or that it is a serious problem." -- Former Clinton official Joseph Romm

"With regard to media consolidation, the rules were relaxed too much. Anti-trust law should apply. I think we shouldn't have abandoned the fairness law; if a media outlet were pushing a particular political point of view... then you had a right to demand the opposite point of view. The airwaves belong to the public, not to anybody, particularly not to Fox News. But having said all that, the editorial page of The Wall Street Journal is even more right wing and irrational than most of the commentators on Fox News. And completely predictable... it's like Pavlov's dogs." -- Bill Clinton

"The real problem is that the political incentives are to spend the taxpayers' money on things that will enhance politicians' chances of getting re-elected. There may be enough money available to maintain bridges and other infrastructure but that same money can have a bigger political pay-off if spent building something new instead of maintaining and repairing existing structures." -- Thomas Sowell

"I believe we can reduce costs and improve the quality of care by increasing competition. We can do it through tax cuts, not tax hikes. We can do it by empowering patients and their doctors, not government bureaucrats. Instead of being more like Europe, we need to be more like America." -- Rudy Giuliani

"Real America's dread of a ‘President Hillary,' though understandable, is not sufficient to get any Republican elected on that basis alone. Yet time and again, the standard reaction of GOP insiders to Hillary's candidacy is to attempt to form and mold their field of candidates in direct response to her." -- Christopher Adamo

"Incumbents loathe political uncertainty. If Democrats and Republicans don't find a way to stop the erosion of pubic confidence in their work, they could be heading into a 2008 election in which neither party has a clear advantage and voters are looking to take scalps in both their camps." -- John Fund

"[Bill Clinton]... will never dodge the spotlight. If his wife is elected, he will speak at conferences and be ambassador to the world. Will he bring drama and mess? Yes. He brings drama wherever he goes because wherever he goes, there he is. Will he bring the particular drama everyone expects? He is officially and forever The Rogue. If Americans hire her as president they will do it knowing he is going to bring his Billness with him." -- Peggy Noonan

"I don't think based on my 35 years of fighting for what I believe in, anybody seriously believes I'm going to be influenced by a lobbyist or a particular interest group." -- Hillary Clinton

"As a rule, I don't approve of people who lay their own shortcomings at the feet of their parents, but when I realize that for no other reason than the way I was raised that I actually voted for Jimmy Carter, it's awfully tempting to blame my folks." -- Burt Prelutsky

"Barack Obama is attempting to portray himself as the next John F. Kennedy... And Lloyd Bentsen had the audacity to make fun of Dan Quayle." -- Doug Patton

"The Democratic candidates for President all refused to attend a meeting of the moderate Democratic Leadership Council (of which Bill Clinton was a charter member) but, went out of their way to attend a convention of the most acidly Liberal group of Bloggers in America all of whom are either (a) lunatics, (b) hypocrites, (c) embarrassments, or (d) all of the above." -- Rich Galen

"It was fun to hear the Democratic candidates give heart-rending reasons for not sending their own kids to public schools. Except John Edwards. He got a ‘woo' for sending his kids to public schools from all those ‘young, hip' Democrats whose greatest concern is how to transfer more money to public schoolteachers while reducing their workload." -- Ann Coulter

"Latest on the campaign: It was reported that things are going so badly for Senator John McCain that he has to carry his own luggage. Meanwhile, things are going so badly for Dennis Kucinich's campaign, he has to carry Barack Obama's luggage." -- Conan O'Brien

"Madame Tussauds' new wax museum in Washington, DC, is going to feature a "scandal room," featuring wax likenesses of elected officials involved in sex, alcohol or ethics scandals. Why would you go there, when you can just walk five blocks to the Capitol building and see the real thing?" -- Jay Leno

web posted August 6, 2007

"When we broadcast teach-ins on the Vietnam War, and the Watergate hearings during the trial of Richard Nixon, it was a real public service -- the reason PBS was created. We should keep Iraq in prime time every week -- the fighting and dying, the suffering, the debate, the politics, the extraordinary costs. It's months until September. This war is killing us now, body and soul." -- PBS's Bill Moyers

"Here is the most important thing Americans need to understand: We are finally getting somewhere in Iraq, at least in military terms. As two analysts who have harshly criticized the Bush administration's miserable handling of Iraq, we were surprised by the gains we saw and the potential to produce not necessarily ‘victory' but a sustainable stability that both we and the Iraqis could live with." -- Michael O'Hanlon and Kenneth Pollack of the Brookings Institution

"The Democrats have convinced themselves, once again, that the enemy is us -- or at least our fault. There was no al-Qa'ida in Iraq before we invaded the country, they argue. If it exists now, it's entirely our own doing. Our presence causes the violence in Iraq. In fact, they say, our presence in Iraq is the greatest recruiting tool the terrorists have." -- Mona Charen "Liberals used to be the ones who argued that sending U.S. troops abroad was a small price to pay to stop genocide; now they argue that genocide is a small price to pay to bring U.S. troops home." -- Jonah Goldberg "Gen. Dave Petraeus and his subordinate commanders are by far the best team we've ever had in place in that wretched country. They're doing damned near everything right -- with austere resources, despite the surge. And they're being abandoned by your elected leaders. Maybe the next presidential primary debate should be held in Baghdad." -- Ralph Peters

"In political life today, you are considered compassionate if you demand that government impose your preferences on others." -- John Stossel

"I suspect the way many viewers reacted to [the] Democratic presidential debate co-sponsored by CNN and YouTube depended on whether they generally see themselves on the taking or giving end of government transactions. For those accustomed to taking from government, it was a tremendous night. For those accustomed to giving to government, it foreshadowed the nightmare to come if a Democrat is elected president." -- Terence Jeffrey

"This is pathetic. What you have right now is partisanship on Capitol Hill that quite often boils down to insults, insinuations, inquisitions and investigations rather than pursuing the normal business of trying to pass major pieces of legislation." -- Tony Snow

"Being a conservative Republican should be about more than abortion policy and the War on Terror. The [GOP presidential] candidates should have to tell voters whether they still believe in traditional principles of limited government, federalism and individual liberty." -- Michael Tanner

"That would be a real big problem for us, no question about that." -- Rep. James Clyburn on how good news regarding the surge in Iraq would be bad for Democrats

"Last week, a snowman was allowed to ask a question about global warming to serious candidates by way of a YouTube video. We have reduced a presidential debate to a TV game show similar to ‘Are You Smarter than a Fifth Grader.' This is no way to choose the leader of the free world." -- Rick Tyler, press secretary for Newt Gingrich "George Washington. Abraham Lincoln. Franklin Roosevelt. John F. Kennedy. Ronald Reagan. Who among these men would answer, with a straight face, a question posed by a snowman?" -- Ken Connor

"Every time ‘objective' networks claim to seek the voice of the American people, they seem to think that 75 or 80 percent of Americans are squarely on the political left of the spectrum, people who think Dennis Kucinich-think is in the mainstream." -- Brent Bozell

"What is it about Democrat Congresswomen from California that gives them the ability to actually see global warming? I'm not sure of the answer, but am positive that for the second time in about two months, a high-ranking Democrat from California went to Greenland, and actually saw global warming." -- Noel Sheppard on Barbara Boxer and Nancy Pelosi

"While, as I recall, conservative little boys practice quick draw with their cap guns while playing cowboys and Indians, apparently liberal little boys practice how fast they can throw up their hands to surrender to the guys in the black hats." -- Tony Blankley

"It seems the little tiff between Barack Obama and Hillary Clinton has really heated up since their last argument at the last Democratic debate. They have become distant. They barely speak to each other now. When they do speak, it's really icy. As Hillary calls that, "marriage.'' -- Jay Leno

"Liberals used to be the ones who argued that sending U.S. troops abroad was a small price to pay to stop genocide; now they argue that genocide is a small price to pay to bring U.S. troops home." -- Jonah Goldberg

"We're in a generation-long battle against terrorism, against al-Qa'ida-inspired terrorism, and this is a battle for which we can give no quarter. It's a battle that's got to be fought in military, diplomatic, intelligence, security, policing and ideological terms." -- Britain's new prime minister Gordon Brown

web posted July 30, 2007

"These are not debates, these are auditions. By definition, the psychology of an audition reduces the person auditioning and raises the status, for example, of Chris Matthews... I have no interest in the current political process. I have no interest in trying to figure out how I can go out and raise money under John McCain's insane censorship rules so I can show up to do seven minutes and twenty seconds at some debate." -- Newt Gingrich

"Today's federal government is too big, too powerful, and too expensive because it is doing things beyond the scope of the Constitution. This is foolish and it is dangerous." -- newly elected Georgia Rep. Paul Broun

"It would be helpful to have a person leading the country who understands how the economy works and has actually managed something. In the case of the three Democratic front-runners, not one of them has managed even a corner store, let alone a state or a city." -- Mitt Romney

"The recent capture of the leading Iraqi in al-Qaeda's Iraq affiliate is no accident... You capture such people only when you have good intelligence, and you have good intelligence only when the locals have turned against the terrorists." -- Charles Krauthammer

"Not only the history of the UN, but the history of the League of Nations before it, demonstrates again and again that going to such places [as the UN] is a way for weak-kneed leaders of democracies to look like they are doing something when in fact they are doing nothing. The Iranian leaders are not going to stop unless they get stopped. And, like Hitler, they don't think we have the guts to stop them." -- Thomas Sowell

"How do you feel about the American hostages in Iran? No, not the guys back in the Seventies, the ones being held right now. What? You haven't heard about them?... Maybe the media figure that showing American prisoners on TV will only drive Bush's ratings back up from the grave to the rude health of intensive care. Or maybe they just don't care about U.S. hostages, not compared to real news like Senate sleepovers to block unblocking a motion to vote for voting against a cloture motion on the best way to surrender in Iraq." -- Mark Steyn

"We must be aware of the spin, the smoke and mirrors from the administration, trying to reshape the message on Iraq being specifically about al-Qa'ida, America's lingering, most familiar fear, trying to invoke some Pavlovian response from the American public, to fear them into again supporting the war." -- CNN correspondent Michael Ware

"[George W. Bush is] the worst president we ever had... When you have a president who is so unpopular... it really reflects poorly on Congress. None of [Congress' approval ratings] are real high and we acknowledge that, but most of it relates to the unpopularity of the president." -- Harry Reid, finding you can blame George W. Bush for everything

"We heard that argument over and over again about the bloodbath that would engulf the entire Southeast Asia [if we left Vietnam], and it didn't happen." -- John Kerry, forgetting about the genocides in Southeast Asia

"I was a lifelong Democrat only because the choices were limited. The Democrats are the party of slavery and were the party that started every war in the 20th century, except the other Bush debacle. The Federal Reserve, permanent federal income taxes, not one but two World Wars, Japanese concentration camps, and not one but two atom bombs dropped on the innocent citizens of Japan -- all brought to us via the Democrats." -- Cindy Sheehan

"Hillary Clinton said we need to start ‘reversing our priorities. Let's stop sending troops to Iraq and let's start insuring every single child.' Yes, that should put a good healthy scare into the insurgents. ‘Run for your life, Ahmed! All American children are getting regular checkups!"' -- Ann Coulter

"Somebody with a better idea of geography should inform Mary Landrieu that bin Laden is holed up in Pakistan, a country she may not know is next door to Afghanistan. Sending troops to Afghanistan to search for bin Laden would make as much sense as sending a geography student to Mary Landrieu to find out where Beluchistan is located. They'd probably end up in Flatbush." -- Michael Reagan

"Last [week] the Senate held an all-night session. Sen. Hillary Clinton gave a speech at four in the morning. It was the first time Hillary gave a speech at four in the morning that didn't begin with, ‘Where the hell have you been?"' -- Conan O'Brien

"Next month, right here in Los Angeles, the leading Democratic presidential candidates will hold a gay debate -- it will be a televised debate to discuss just gay issues. Well, how much is John Edwards going to spend on his hair for that? ... John Edwards is continuing his "Poverty Tour" around America. Today he visited with a group of people who get their hair cut at a place called "a barber shop." He was horrified at their stories. ... John Edwards has a new TV commercial touting him as a tough guy. His wife says he has unbelievable toughness. And he is tough. Like in the ad, it says sometimes he shampoos his hair and then skips the conditioner completely and goes commando." -- Jay Leno